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The experience of enjoying Colonel Gayre’s mead must have had a mystical effect upon Reinold, for as soon after we had sampled the meads, he mentioned that there was a journal in one of the bookcases of the library in which the colonel had kept notes on his mead experimentation. I searched the rest of the day, but it wasn’t until the next morning that I discovered it. I was leaving later that morning and had little time to view it, though. I did quickly note a few handwritten formulations. The first was for an early sack metheglin, surely a less potent predecessor of what I had experienced the night before:

for SACK METHEGLIN

18 quarts [Imperial, or approximately 5½ U.S. gallons] of water, 9 pounds of honey and 2 tight handfuls of gruit. [the gruit consisting of] 1 handful of fresh fennel and equal parts [to make up the other handful] of lemon balm, thyme in flower and sage.

Another formulation for gruit appeared later in his journal and may be more indicative of the gruit of which the sack metheglin from the previous night had been made. Question marks appear where the handwritten notes were not quite legible.

3 parts: bog myrtle (sweet gale)

3 parts: rosemary

3 parts: yarrow

1 part: ginger

9 parts: fennel

1 part: rue (ceaser?)

1 part: thyme

2 parts: sweet criar(?)

1 part: tansy

2 parts: balm

1 part: peppermint

Here is another recipe for gruit, in which Gayre apparently experiments with clove, cinnamon and nutmeg:

Metheglin for 5 imperial gallons [6 U.S. gallons]

2 oz.: fresh fennel

2 oz.: lemon balm, thyme and sage in flower

2 oz.: elder flowers, fresh

1 oz.: bay leaf, tansy (fresh), parsley (fresh) and mint

½ oz.: clove, cinnamon and nutmeg

The first formulation for sack-type mead related to the above gruit formulations indicates the use of 2 pounds of honey per imperial gallon. This must have been an earlier experiment, as further on in his journal Gayre refines his formulations to become more indicative of a truer sack mead with ratios of 5 pounds (2.3 kg) of honey per imperial gallon (1.2 U.S. gallon, or 4.6 l) for sack mead and 6 pounds (2.7 kg) per imperial gallon for melage sack mead.

To assure the cessation of fermentation, Gayre would add spirits (alcohol), fortifying some of his concoctions.

While experimenting with yeast, he noted that he isolated some of his yeast cultures from fresh apple juice: “add ¼ bottle of whisky to 2 gallons of apple juice and 12 # honey…” I wondered, did the whisky inhibit bacterial organisms, while wild yeast survived? Did the wild yeast encourage a more complete fermentation?

Gayre must have experimented with various gruits until he was satisfied, for a later journal entry describes a grander production of metheglin. A large volume of gruit was formulated thusly:

10 lbs.: heads of elder flowers

1 lb.: heads of hawthorn

3 oz.: rosemary

2½ lbs.: fennel [probably not seeds]

4 oz.: thyme

9 oz.: balm

½ oz.: borage

½ oz.: peppermint

½ oz.: marjoram

1 oz.: southernwood (type of wormwood)

1 oz.: rue

1 oz.: horehound

1 oz.: winter savory

1 oz.: hyssop

1 oz.: mint

1 oz.: wormwood [this herb is toxic and not recommended]

1 oz.: pennyroyal

6 oz.: tansy

?: comfrey

?: agrimony

3: bottles of rose hip syrup

The castle remains a sentry on the shores of Loch Fyne, in county Argyll. Marion and Reinold Gayre keep busy with the upkeep of the castle and attending to the six or seven self-catering cottages on the castle grounds. They rent these cottages by the week to vacationers. Theirs is a long and busy day, spent attending to dry rot, leaking roofs, water-damaged floors, dusting, plumbing and window cleaning. Castle upkeep isn’t a normal housekeeping job. But a visitor like myself, in awe of antiquity and in search of lost meads, can’t help but admire the Gayre family’s dedication to traditions.

I emerged from within the castle walls a bit wiser in the ways of mead. Tucked away in my